Authors

Sergiu Gherghina¹; Bettina Mitru²;  ¹ University of Glasgow, UK;  ² Babeș–Bolyai University, Romania

Discussion

Participatory budgeting gained momentum around the world in the last three decades. Many cities in Romania followed this trend and adopted participatory budgeting after 2013. However, only half of 14 cities that organized participatory budgeting at least once use this practice on a continuous basis. This article seeks to explain why participatory budgeting survives in some municipalities while in others did not. It uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to test the explanatory potential of variables such as the municipality size, special office dedicated to the process, turnout, existence of a platform for participation or the ideology of the majority in the local council.